PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

**Abstract**
This paper investigates the concept of trust at the discourse level. Based on an epistemological discourse approach (Busse 1987), trust is defined as trust-relevant knowledge, which is usually implicit. The paper focuses on the methodology of the analysis of trust at discourse level in the mass media reporting on refugees by identifying implicit indicators of trust constructions (trust dimensions) and their discourse linguistic operationalization through argumentation patterns. The manual annotation of trust dimensions and a combination of hermeneutic and automatic analysis usingMaxqdaplay a central role for the operationalization of the concepttrustfor discourse linguistic analysis. The implementation of the method is demonstrated by analyzing the media construction of the loss and the rebuilding of trust towards refugees (the discursive trust dynamics) in the context of the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany in December 2015/January 2016. In contrast to sociological studies, the present analysis does not show an increased mass media construction of distrust in the face of this discursive event and therefore demonstrates that discourse linguistic trust research contributes to the interdisciplinary research on trust and provides valid findings about the collective knowledge about refugees.